Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1887-03-26
THE SOURCES OF RIVERS.
Interesting Facts About tse Local
itIcs Where Great Streams
Rise.

Most people have probably heard the
story of the house III Ohio which Is
said TO be so exactly balanced upon
the boundary line between the basins
OF the great lakes and the Ohio river
that the rain falling upon one side OF
the gable roof goes to join the st
Lawrence and the ocean, while on
the other side it helps to swell a little
brook that finally mingles with the
Ohio and the quit. There is a more
wonderful place than this in India.
Almost 500 miles due west of Calcutta
il the Ammarkautak mountain, which
is a place of great %sanctity in the eyes
of the Hindoos, owing to the remark-
able fact that it is the source of one of
the large rivers of India, and of feed
ers of three other rivers that are among
the greatest III the peninsula. The
torrents that flow down its sides travel
to all the cardinal points of the COM
pass. The Nerbuuda, which takes its
rise here, winds its way over 800 miles
of plain before it empties into the
Indian pecan. The three other great
| rivers that are fed from Mount Ammer-
kantak are the Godavery the Mahanud-
| dy, and the Some.
The natives of India have a great
reverence for the sources of a number
of their largest rivers, whose waters,
bv means of irrigating works, are Of
ten used in times of drought to nour-
ish the soil and prevent or mitigate
famines. The Godavery, the most inn
portant river in South India, takes its
rise in a brook that issues from a bill
side near the village of Nassik. The
spot where this brook gushes from the
rock is approached by a flight of 600
tone steps, of the top of which is a
great stone platform built at the foot
Of the rock from which the stream
issues. An image under a large canopy
.Ias been so placed that the water pours
out OF its mouth and then goes spark
ling down the the hill. From this spot
he stream flows 900 miles right across
he peninsula, growing on the way into
4 mighty river and draining 120. 900
square miles. The source of the Coda
Very is one of the sights Of the Bombay
presidency.
e. Mr.. W. D Cooley, the geographer,
made 8 curious blunder about the head
stream of the Luapula river, which
mites with the Lualaba to Et.m the
upper Congo. This stream is the
Chambesi, which empties into lake
Bangweoio. Cooley, misled by the
similarity in the names, thought the
Chambesi was the upper waters of the
Zanbesi, and it appears on his map as
a part of the Zambesi system. 1t Is al
interesting fact, shown by the latest
discoveries, that the Chambesi, which
for some ears has been regarded as
the ultimate source of the Congo. must
10Y yield TO the Lalaby, which is the
real headwaters of the mighty river.
One little stream, whose waters flow
from river to river until they finally
join the Amazon, runs for ten or hf-
teen miles bv the side of one of the
great Paraguay. Though they flow
parallel to. each other, and only two or
three miles apart, they run in opposite
directions. Canoes are often hauled
across the intervening portage, and in
this way it is possible for a small boat
to travel from. the mouth of the Anna
zon to Buenos Ayres along the inland
waters of South-America, and with a
portage of only two or three miles.